


First Impressions

by notjustmom



Series: The Mentalist [11]
Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Episode: s05e05 Red Dawn, First Meetings, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 11:21:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21475177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: Lisbon and Jane meet, and a bit of their first case together...
Series: The Mentalist [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1526000
Comments: 6
Kudos: 25





	First Impressions

Seriously?

He blinked at the woman who stood in front of him, sure of herself, of her place in the world. Younger than he'd thought she would be. No, she just appeared to be younger than she actually was. She bore her own trauma in her posture. Alcoholic parent - father? Mother, dead. Cross. Catholic. Attended Mass. Single. Intentionally so. Only friends were co-workers, but they weren’t really friends, they were her subordinates. She was nearly as alone as he was, but her solitude was more voluntary than his own.

“Mr. Jane?”

“You’re Lisbon? Detective Elliott said you were in charge of the Red John case.”

“I am, we took over from the SACPD recently. Is there something I can help you with?”

“I am -”

“I know who you are, Mr. Jane, and I’m terribly sorry, but we just got a new case -”

“I don’t mind waiting.”

“Mr. Jane, we don’t have a waiting area. It’s policy.”

“Policy. Right. Uhm, what if I come back in three hours?”

She studied the man with the three day old stubble, the half tucked in shirt - looked like he got less sleep than she did, it was hard to imagine how he was standing up - but she saw something in his hazel(?) eyes. A deep pain, an intelligence she had never seen anything like it before. She knew he was studying her in turn, and saw more than she liked to admit. How? Psychic, wasn't he supposed to be, that was his story, right? No. No such thing as psychics. Just a trick. Refocus, control, Lisbon, yes, he’s got that lost puppy-dog thing, charm, maybe? Attractive, yeah, sure, but all that baggage… 

“Sure. Just come back later, ‘kay? Hannigan -”

“Yeah, ‘boss’?”

“Can you please show Mr. Jane the way out?”

“This way, Mr. Jane…” 

He looked into the suspect’s eyes, and stepped back. “Why did you do it? You seem a decent man, you come from a good family… why…” He glanced around the room, and caught the look in Lisbon's eyes. There wasn’t the surprise he expected, it was more of a ‘told you so’... she had believed in him, and he managed to offer her a nod and grin in return, and felt like he was actually able to take a deep breath for the first time. Not only since he had opened the bedroom door, but for the first time in his life, he felt like he truly belonged somewhere, and it wasn’t the building. It was her. He shrugged and shook his head, and slowly walked out of the room.

“So when can I see the files?”

“Are you sure you want to do this? Wouldn’t it be better if you just went somewhere else, started over again?”

“That’s what Hannigan said.”

“Hmm.” She studied him again, then sighed and muttered, “clean up and come back tomorrow, and you can see them - you do have a bit of a homeless vibe about you.”

“Agent Lisbon.”

“Thank you, Mr. Jane.” He smiled again at her, and this time the smile reached his eyes. He nodded, then turned towards the elevator without another word.


End file.
